ELMONT, N.Y. – After upsetting Jack Shore to hand him his first loss, Ricky Simon said having that distinction really doesn’t mean that much to him.
Simon (20-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) forced Shore (16-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) to tap to a second-round arm-triangle choke in a key bantamweight bout at UFC on ABC 3 in Elmont, N.Y., on Saturday. Shore, a former Cage Warriors champion who had started his UFC tenure at 5-0, was close to a 2-1 betting favorite in the fight. But Simon arguably was his toughest opponent yet.
What’s more important to him than being the first one to beat Shore was making sure his own winning streak continued, Simon said. He ran it to five straight against highly regarded names like Raphael Assuncao, Brian Kelleher, Ray Borg, and now Shore.
“I could give two sh*ts about giving him his first loss,” Simon told MMA Junkie at his post-fight news conference in Elmont, N.Y. “I know I’m going to win. I don’t care if it’s his third loss, fourth loss, fifth loss. I just knew I was going to be the winner of this one. We were able to break him down, and I felt like I was better everywhere.”
Now Simon is interested in a fight against Sean O’Malley (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), who two weeks ago had a fight against Pedro Munhoz stopped in the first round when Munhoz couldn’t continue due to an accidental eye poke.
But he also doesn’t seem to be overly confident O’Malley would sign up for a fight with him.
“I really don’t care if he does or not,” Simon said. “I want to fight someone in the top 10. I think that’s what I deserve at this point. That was my 10th UFC fight, eighth UFC win, and I’m definitely ready for that bump up in competition. I need a bigger name – someone ranked higher next time.
“I’ve mostly been consistent with the wins, but it’s being consistent with the finishes. That’s what the UFC wants, thats what the fans what, and that’s what I’m producing now. I think I deserve that bump.”
Simon has finishes in three of his past four fights. His submission of Shore was worth an extra $50,000 as one of six Performance of the Night post-fight bonus awards.
Check out Simon’s full post-fight interview in the video above.
